


Prove me wrong

by funnyhowthatis



Category: For the People (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-24 10:12:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18569287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/funnyhowthatis/pseuds/funnyhowthatis
Summary: At the end of 2x07, if Kate had gone to Sandra's office instead of just putting down her phone.





	Prove me wrong

**Author's Note:**

> This is my take on the fact that Kate definitely would have gone over to comfort Sandra.
> 
> NB: I wrote this before I realized [tillthestarsevaporate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tillthestarsevaporate/pseuds/tillthestarsevaporate) had already written a scenario like this. I thought I would post it anyway because there's so little fic for these two, but please go check out their work [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18539569) because it's so good! I hope I didn't step on any toes!

Kate stopped just before Sandra’s door. She had offered half-hearted and awkward excuses to the defenders she passed. She had files. They were urgent. Yes, that was why her bag was shaped the way it was. 

She could see Sandra through the blinds enough to make out her slouched figure on the couch, and in that moment, her heart dropped a little, just as it had when she heard the news at her own desk, just as it had every time she had opened her phone and seen the last text from Sandra the other night _I need your advice._

She knocked, loudly, curtly.

“I’ll meet you at home,” Sandra called out.

Kate took a small breath, and let herself in, closing the door behind her just as Sandra trailed off, “Al, I said… Oh.”

“Hi.” Kate stayed where she was, standing by the door.

“Have you heard?”

“Yes.”

“And, what, are you here to tell me I made the right choice?”

“Yes.”

“You, Kate Littlejohn, are going to stand there and tell me that I made the right call by blindly following my -”

“No, I’m not going to do that.”

“Then what?”

“I -”

Sandra raised her eyebrows. Kate took another small breath in.

“I don’t know that I would have made the choice you made.”

“Oh, now you tell -”

“Sandra,” she cut in sharply. Sandra sat back. “Can I finish?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know,” Kate responded, a little slower, “that I would have made the choice you made. _But_ , I know that, in that moment, you did not make the wrong call. And I know you think this makes you a bad defender. It doesn’t. It makes you a complex defender. You, Sandra Bell, are not just one thing. You can be the fiery unyielding public defender, but also one who is so aware of her position in the law, that she knows when it is time to step outside of her role. I told you already. I cherish the rules, I use them as my backbone. And you - for you it’s your role as a defender?”

Sandra nodded slowly.

“Do you know what bravery is? True bravery? Being able to put your own backbone, the thing that defines you, the thing that lets you be everything you are - putting all of that on the line in order to make the right call. _That_ is what I’m not sure I would have done.”

“But in the end -”

“In the end you were wrong. Yes. You put all of that on the line, and you lost. But only this round.”

“How do I face my next clients? How do I face them and tell them that I’m their attorney, that they can -” her voice was softer now, the anger gone.

“Sandra, if you don’t think you can prove yourself as a defender, then no one else here can.”

She laughed at that. “Now you’re just flattering me.”

“Maybe I am.”

Kate was suddenly very aware of her own body, of how she was still standing at the door, at how far away Sandra seemed to be, at how she looked at her with such intensity. She coughed slightly, and looked away, moving to stand by the desk, picking up the set of post-it notes she had left. She had been looking for a distraction, anything for her hands to do, but this didn’t help in the slightest.

“You kept them here.” It was quiet. It was unclear if she meant for those words to escape her lips.

“They remind me to be a better lawyer.”

Kate smiled and looked back to Sandra. “I told you that it was good that - that it was better for our humanity to be removed from our practice of the law. I always thought it was better for emotion to never play a part. You showed me… What I want to say is, I think I was wrong. I think I just didn’t know how to use it. How to control it. And this you can’t tell anyone.”

“What are you saying?” Sandra’s look was...piercing, challenging.

“I -” Kate looked away, looked around, could not meet that gaze outside of the courtroom or away from the negotiating table. Her eyes landed upon the corner of Clue, poking out from a pile of papers.

“I see I didn’t have to bring this.” She pulled the same game from her bag.

It was Sandra’s turn to fluster slightly. “It was an impulse buy.”

“I see. Well, I know I can never prove to you that you’re wrong in thinking your call makes you a bad defender, but I can definitely prove you wrong here. I _will_ destroy you.”

Sandra stood, walked closer and closer. Kate felt her breath shorten, and just as she thought they would - Sandra stopped. “I accept your challenge,” she said, and then walked past Kate to sit at her desk, gesturing for Kate to take the chair across from her. Before turning to do so, Kate closed her eyes for a moment and let herself exhale. She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and turned to face Sandra, ready to play.

“You really think you can beat me?”

“Prove me wrong.”

As they played, it was clear to Kate that nothing could distract Sandra from the day’s events. That every lull, every moment of silence, brought her back to hearing the news, brought her back to her decision space. But she could also tell that the distraction was better than nothing.

She could also tell that, when her favorite childhood game gave her the confidence to say “You’ve made me a better lawyer, you know. A better person,” Sandra took it to heart. That maybe that would be enough to get her through the night.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Also I guess ignore the fact that Clue (at least in my experience) really isn't fun unless there's more than two players?


End file.
